Sunday, September 21, 2014

USA vs World - NBC ANW6 Special - Part 1

I've been busy this week with real life coupled with the fact that I was procrastinating like hell from typing this blog. To add insult to injury, the monitor on my PC is dying so it's been flickering like hell. So yes, it is long delayed. Heck, this particular blog I had in draft for 3 full days. LOL I needed to calm down before I started to vomit out my words. Seriously.. I was that angry. one could argue that I still am but trust me I was raging before. Especially after listening to people shoot the messenger on the forums for a week. For those watching the broadcast with zero back-story, they will not understand my anger.

I was considering not doing this blog because I was not happy with the politics from last year. I haven't seen ANW for 6 years as it is and this year the politics were much much worse. It also had altered results which were more obvious than in previous years and the brazenness of it was so stark that it took my breath away. Now that they know they can get away with it, they don't care anymore.

However.. I promised the Japanese (including but not limited to Japan Team member Yuusuke Morimoto) that I would do this for them. So here I am. There is a story that I will share that made me calm down a lot. It was repeated to me again just recently because they knew I was angry when this show happened and then subsequently aired. I thank them for taking the time to put it into perspective for me. It doesn't change what happened to them, but it's important to know that I shouldn't be angry about something they are not angry about.

Before the team even left Japan, there was an understanding between them (openly discussed) that due to the events from last year, and the "promises" from NBC to TBS this year (which the team knew they would not honor), they would just try to go the flow and have fun. (i.e. Don't take anything personal) They believe now more than ever that Sasuke is closer to a sports competition while ANW is purely a made for television event. Regardless of how hard an athlete competes, NBC will find a way to trivialize it, and mold the results to fit whatever narrative they are pushing for "dramatic purposes". Twist words, rearrange orders, and even if that means fudging with what actually happened, including results. They know that now and after the events of this particular "television show" it didn't help dissuade them. In fact, it completely solidified their opinion.

So the blame is on NBC (again) and not on the competitors. Each of the 15 competitors that were there competed with their heart and soul. I wanted to make that clear before this even begins. This is now the 3rd indictment against NBC for not being fair, nor sportsmanlike and downright altering results. It infuriates me when they use the "discretion" clause and remind people that it's a TV show when they alter events to "make it more dramatic". They are unabashed about it now and feel justified in doing so even when confronted.

So RIGHT off the bat.. I hit the pause button and walked out of the room when I heard the "dub" on all the Japanese voices. To explain my furor, in the past NBC (and G4 before them) were ripped mercilessly for getting their translations wrong (as in WAY wrong - as in drunk interns though thought Nagano's boss was his father wrong).. so now, they completely dub over the voice and shorten the clip by a full 10 seconds so you can't even check if the wording is right. By context alone, I know he didn't say half of what he said. The latter interviews were far worse than Shingo's but I'll get to that when I get there. On top of that, the dub voice has a very very heavy accent as if it's an uneducated foreign speaker without the grasp of English. For the record... Shingo doesn't have that voice.. at all. I found the dub to be condescending and quite frankly.. racist. You'll see why when I get to the Italian "interpreter".

So this whole time there's this reaaaaaally annoying American Country song (...I hate country) that's basically shitting 'Merica domination in an event that's supposed to be "International" friendly competition with no trash talk. I can't even defend it. I just shake my head. So much for even playing field.. and so much for no trash talking... (more on that later)

Then we are introduced to the "Europe" Team... for the record I have steadfast rules. First, BE of the country you represent. That includes the dual citizens. A simple way of avoiding this is this.. if you participated in AMERICAN Ninja Warrior, you are automatically disqualified for all other teams, except the American Team. Tim is a unique problem because he legitimately is American (born here) but legitimately raised in England and competes internationally as a Brit. However, he's competed in ANW HOW many years? Seriously... he should have been on the American side if he qualified to be part of AMERICAN Ninja Warrior. And yes I'm being obtuse about it because NBC took sick pleasure telling me to STFU about not having "Foreigners" in ANW because "duh" this is AMERICAN Ninja Warrior. Now they don't even bother with their own rules because they were lazy. Were they incapable of actually finding legit Europeans? Or was the profile of ANW worldwide is so small compared to Sasuke that they couldn't find anyone else willing to be on the show? NBC was only doing an international event because TBS refused to do another without it being international. TBS wanted a more inclusive competition and NBC balked at it .. twice.. then finally they relented and then promptly broke one of the promises NBC made to TBS with the composition of Team "Europe".

Second, be consistent with your wording. This was supposed to be "World Team". It's even in the title. However, out of nowhere during qualifying for the "World" team, they arbitrarily added "Europe". So they jerryrigged this poor guy's country and somehow made him French. I'm sure France is rolling their eyes at a Western Canadian representing France in an international competition. He's not even French Canadian..he only trains in France. Just like anyone coming into the USA to use our training facilities or coaches doesn't give them citizenship.. However, according to NBC that's enough to change his country of origin. I guess it doesn't matter since this really isn't a competition anyway, it's an entertainment show.

Sean's from friggin' Vancouver and STILL competes for Canada. Last time I checked, Canada is not in Europe it's part of North America. So the NBC interns not only didn't hire the proper interpreters, they also failed grade school geography. And before people start saying the education system here in the USA sucks, we are all not that stupid. NBC just shoehorned this in because they could. Probably some intern going "oh we can use the Euro Flag wouldn't that be totally cool?" God forbid they actually stick to their original plan of doing a universal World Team. I would have avoided all of this. Heck it would have been cool to see the Maple Leaf, the Union Jack and so on and so on. Give some flavor ya know?

I have zero problems with Team USA. They are just as much the victims here as everyone else who participated in this show. They worked their asses off to be on this team. They just participate and NBC are the asshats for the editing and other changes. I'm assuming the composition of the team is results based since I didn't watch ANW. I don't watch the show. Period. I'm only here for the International event. Just like last year.

Seems Paul was finally shown after being chacked for most of ANW6. So kudos for being named MVP. He deserves it. He's had a long history of consistency in both ANW and Sasuke. On top of that he doesn't showboat during the course of his run so he's automatically on my nice list. ( ^ . ^ )

So I'm actually muting the video because this song is reaally pissing me off. At least I'm getting good visuals from all of the teams. The song is just so over the top.. and you wonder why so many people look down on our country for being ignorant..

Mmmm.. the smell of freshly waxed eyebrows in the morning.. sorry.. couldn't resist. I still find it funny that men in Japan wax their eyebrows..

Reminder of who won last year.

Let the trash talking begin! LOL Zomg we have to keep it here in 'MERICA dudes.. grating on my nerves.. but whatever, I knew what I was going into when I turned on the video. Glad I have the pause, mute and fast forward buttons.. this is going to be a long blog process...

Oh thank God the song is done..And no, this was not the same producer that had the Reddit AMA. LOL Anyway this is a good shot of the course overhead. Just like TBS, they are milking the helicopter and crane rentals!

Never understood why Matt has to yell his lines. His voice is resonant enough, I swear he's going to bust a neck vein from all that straining. He complains about his voice going hoarse.. it wouldn't if you didn't yell so much. Seriously.. you have a microphone.. they can HEAR you.. At least Akbar doesn't for all the fault I find in his horrible delivery, he at least doesn't make my ears bleed. Shame nothing useful comes out of his mouth though. Never thought I'd want Jonny back.. at least I can blame the fact that he's probably stoned. Matt just infuriates me these days since he knows he's altering history by looping certain lines to fit the NBC formula. He can no longer be ignorant about it anymore, he's now complicit.

USA Team being named and sorry Matt.. Kane got to the Final of Mount Midoriyama.. we've been through this..

Japan team.. wait they named the districts and not mention the prefectures (what we would consider states)? Most people don't know the cities but they do know the prefectures.. USA had city and state but not name country? We kinda know this is Team Japan. LOL? Oh I give up. Most people just know Japan as a nation but wouldn't know where the prefectures are let alone the towns..

The next Legit from Europe even though I don't usually add Scandinavia as part of the European Continent since they are on Islands to the north. LOL Damn those details.

And the single competitor that pissed off the rest of anyone who watched or knew about the Europe Team Qualifiers (10 countries had to qualify a couple days before the event - something Vadym apparently was to important to take part in). He's legit Ukraine, however he competed in THIS year's ANW as an American AND never qualified to the Special we are watching now. He failed two days before in the first stage.. He.. just showed up on Sunday and was thrown on the team for some unknown reason. Maybe NBC has timeshares with LeReve or something because they got some serious advertising for that show in Vegas for both ANW6 and this event. He's like a walking advertising billboard. There was zero explanation why he was on the show and why others who showed up for qualifying were left off the team. He's not good, he showed that already by his results (which is probably why they won't show his footage on this show LOL). If they knew already who they wanted for that last spot, why the hell make the rest of them do the song and dance? Just pick your team and own it. Waste of people's time. Seriously.

So that out of the way.. the start of the First Stage. See what I mean? The show hasn't even started and the bullshit is off the charts.. calm down.. calm down.. tv show.. tv show.. no one cares.. no one likes NBC anyway.. okay much better now. Thanks Team Japan. That helps.

Similar to last year's horrendous point system.. (yes, sadly, that's back), fastest wins, but now have 3 guys competing against each other in "heats".

Should be self explanatory.

Lady.. seriously.. lay off the Botox.. your entire FACE doesn't move...you look like a robot..and sorry that you are aging but that.. look.. yeah.. that's making you look older than what you really are. For crying out loud you are almost a decade younger than me..

Btw one funny line that Jenn said during this.. "competitors have to traverse 8 angled cylinders.." unless the Botox leaked into her brain causing damage.. she should have taken time to actually count them. I mean she was literally standing right next to it..

I count only 6 pistons.. For a company that loops almost all of their audio.. this should have been corrected. Unless they wanted her to sound like an idiot. LOL If so, mission accomplished. This is why he hire Editors folks. This isn't a a fan video, this is a multimillion dollar corporation. This stuff is inexcusable.

This obstacle has always looked.. weird to me.. dunno. just seems out of place. Oh well Asa got his face smashed into it last year so that's probably why they brought it back.

Heh.. this looks like a prison break obstacle complete with bed sheets and 1980's action movie zip-line to freedom.

This entire course looks like a video game now that I think of it.. Big ass arrow going "zomg this way!"..

Not sure if the budget ran out and they couldn't make the full curve at the bottom or not..

I call these the Bouncy Balls™

So yeah.. no timer so it's not competing against the obstacles, you are competing against each other.. yay.. /facepalm

Group huddle I guess. Let the Carpetbagger's Olympics-sorta-made-for-TV-show begin! USA vs. Japan vs. ANW rejects and a couple of random guys who have never watched the show but were paid to show up for some reason because you know "money" and oh and Miska a hardcore Sasuke fan who actually qualified to be here.

Kudos to NBC for not overtly putting the Mount Midoriyama appearances on the graphic. If they did they'd have to be overt about Vadym being on ANW and that would break the mystique ya know? Everyone on this list would have Mount Midoriyama appearances. LOL

You know.. like last year... ehem

Hmm so is he a meteorologist? or a weatherman? There's a difference between the two actually. One is an actor spitting out lines on the teleprompter and the other is an educated scientist.

Awkward fluff piece and a reminder of him being the last guy standing in ANW6. Btw.. how thick is that ledge? I can see it from here.. LOL

And here we go!

Hmm I'm already thinking ahead so I see how they are hiding the time changes.

They have one clock that is on the screen when the competitor is there, then when the fake crowd shots are on there's no clock. Interesting.

A bit of slipping on the walls.

.. they have their own Twitter hashtags?

Up the wall.. wait.. they are now promoting their own show during another show?

Goodness NBC loves self promotion

LOL Brent looks perturbed and who the hell is that next to him? (Giggles James)

Oh and.. "Japan's version of Ninja Warrior"? Why does that sound.. wrong? LOL You stupid Asshat.. Ninja Warrior IS Japan's Sasuke.. The Original and still ongoing. It's not a "version". so if ANW is America's version of Ninja Warrior.. then WTF is "Ninja Warrior"? LOL!!!!!!!!!! Who writes this stuff? And more importantly.. who edits it? Both need to be fired. Or at least paid so they can care to actually get it right.

So we have the racist dub again.. and the portrait box edit of the video to cover icons and whatnot.

Or worse, cover up the fact that they haven't paid for most of this footage. LOL

And yep, I doubt Shingo said about 80% of that but who cares at this point I've beaten the dead horse already... here's a cool shot.

So the job they list is the auto repair. He's got that, a gym he's building, running 4 gas stations, 2 hotels.. yeah. He's over employed. I think he has more jobs than all of Team USA right now..

And yes in contrast to most of the NBC endorsed stars who quit their jobs so they can excel in a TV show, Shingo does stand out. He's a true entrepreneur.

Backlit primary colors are kinda hurting my eyes.

I mean the whole course looks polished and well lit. Just sooooooo many primary colors.

Insert hashtag.

And random fake cheering because we have no idea what they were staring at before. And it's the exact same shot from the start of the run. LOL

And whoops he must have slipped on the same spot of slime that Joe did

but because he landed lower he had no way to recover.

Counting 4 guys... Shingo is not sitting next to them.. okay this one is plausible.

Oh we see his legs! So that's what it looks like when the water isn't septic sludge! LOL

Repeat of the fail on the Jumping Spider

And no interview. They didn't pay for interpreters to actually get it right live. LOL

Random crowd shot™

Random Crowd shot™

Ah yes.. him.. wait.. Matt blowing smoke out of his ass again "oh they are a real mystery.. they are World Class athletes that have never competed in Ninja Competitions?"

Uh.. he's .. competed in Ninja Competitions.. many many many times..

Okay.. seems only Jenn got the memo and forgot to tell Matt that Tim is a VETERAN from ANW. Maybe they didn't recognize him since he's changed his look?

er.. nope.. still from Canada..

He's actually from Italy.

And actually from Finland.

Those from SMF know exactly who Miska is

Former Olympic member from Ukraine. You never heard of him because he wasn't very good. Neither was his team.

Geez the price LeReve must have paid to put him in the show must have been pretty high.

I wouldn't have had such a problem with him being here if it wasn't for the next shot.. I found of him..

From ANW.. 6.. yes.. this season. So.. why was he in both events if he's not American? He didn't qualify to be in the World Team.. and he competed as an American when foreigners were supposed to be disqualified from competing.. So what gives? Why is he even here?

Familycam™

anyway I wasted enough breath on him..

even if he was the subject of most of everyone's wtf's for that day. LOL

Jumps nice and high and avoids the slime on the walls that took out Shingo and almost took out Joe.

aaaaaaaaaaalmost..

Nope, saves himself from Shingoing™ the HPA

and safely dismounts the HPA

Clear on the wall

Safely on the bouncy bridge

Btw.. to my knowledge... the sound of the buzzer was added for television.

Random crowd shot™

Random Crowd shot™

And when it sunk in that he wasn't good here either.

To boot even after screwing this up he's arrogant as well. Yeah.. I think there were other reasons why people hated him being named to the team outside of the obvious NBC/Vegas connection. He's an ass..

Team USA legit takes Stage 1 - Heat 1 to earn a point. (To my knowledge they didn't futz too much with the orders this time for Stage 1. If they did it's not enough to change standings or anything).

Heat 2.. Chuckles.. did they match all of the underemployed guys in one heat on purpose? Or were the fates trying to align themselves again?

lol they are struggling to find commentary for him. I guess they didn't find the shotgun wedding entertaining enough...

It's not like they actually watch the original show to know more about him anyway.

safe landing

Nearly falls off the Jumping Spider as well!

Safely lands on the HPA

Misses the wall which I believe is higher than Sasuke because they screwed up the metric conversions.. They still insist "this" is to specs. LOL

I'm sure Asa provided a cubic butt-ton of footage for them to use. LOL

random crowd shot™.. he doesn't know English so he has no idea wtf you are saying. LOL

I was told he tried going up this thing dozens of times..

So him being tired was after all of those tries.

See NBC? You can subtitle.. we can figure out if it matches or not..

Kanno losing faith he can run up this wall which is legit higher than Sasuke's.

random crowd shot™

Finally after a dozen times he bows to the crowd and forfeits.

Random crowd shot™ as the shot doesn't even match the scene. LOL

Meanwhile American. .no wait.. British..

NBC owns the fact that he competed as an American in the show.. several.. times.. At least I didn't have to go digging for footage. It's a shame that they glorify the showboating that is normally frowned upon. Nothing in this fluff piece actually makes me want to like him. He's arrogant and a trash talker. Two personality traits I despise. About the only thing I can say is that he is gifted. He really is. Shame it hasn't translated at all to ANW thus far as many times as he tried.

Anyway seems the trash talking began early where he was going for the fastest time to prove his superiority.

I assume he trained harder this time or something since he's failed to do it in all the other ANW events from before?

Or did they record the interview after he did it? LOL That wouldn't surprise me at all. That's actually kinda normal and universally expected..

Clears the Jumping Spider

and HPA

Takeda™ up the wall

quick question.. NBC.. do you even know how Hashtags work? When you have a dozen different hashtags.. they don't trend.. because you are splitting the vote. Apparently I am asking too much for the idiots in NBC to know how Twitter trending works. LOL

Seems the 4th try at ANW got him the faster time.

You know the proverb, "if at first you don't succeed, try try again."

Backed up the smack and took the top time in Stage 1 - Heat 2.

For those who don't read my blog, this is called the "Takeda". Yes, his name is also used as a verb. He's so famous for cutting the wall run up, so much so that TBS had to redesign the entry to the wall AROUND his technique. Notice now you cannot do the wall this way in Sasuke. It's because of Takeda. Doubtful Tim (let alone Matt and even less Akbar) knows this particular bit of Sasuke history, but still a cool technique nonetheless.

random crowd shot™

Up next is another Speedster. I think this is why they stopped doling out titles for people.. they are running out of them..

Ooooooh "free spirit".. Wow.. that's what they call it these days? So he got an extended fluff piece for being a casual slob? You mean one of those useless members of society? No wonder they were so surprised that Shingo had more than 1 job and has been gainfully employed for all of his life.. they got slackers like these guys in ANW. Yikes. Here kids.. his motto in life is to be a slob, work as little as possible so he can be lazy all day. Glad he hasn't procreated, we don't need any more kids on welfare. Then again, maybe they can just be American Ninja Warrior, he'd be heralded as a God.

LMFAO.. the natural.... seriously.. The Natural? Seems they are reinventing phrases. It's supposed to mean someone naturally gifted above even people who train hard at something. What he is actually already has a name. It's called Hippie.. Matt's old enough to know wtf they were. Seems that generation is back.. I prefer to call them vagabonds. A bit more accurate.

Almost conks his head on the Giant ring.. maybe it will knock some sense into him? Sorry.. I really am digressing badly aren't I? LOL

Ooooh.. nvm.. that will knock some sense into him..

random crowd shot™

replay of the DQ - no touchie water

wait.. I HEARD A KLAXON!!.. Aahahahahahahaha random crowd shot™ so yeah the order was fudged. (still doesn't change standings.. just orders were screwed)

Europe ties it up.

On to the 3rd heat. LOL Now that they found a real superfan in Miska.. that's probably why they didn't use the titles this year.. because NBC used that same title for Ryo last year. Gigglesnort.

Uhm.. Matt? This is his FOURTH appearance in International Competition.. not his 2nd..

Paul competed TWICE for the USA before (both in Japan) in Sasuke 26 and this one from Sasuke 27. Maybe because it wasn't.. wait.. it was ANW by this point.. That is most certainly an ANW shirt..

And what I find amazingly stupid about Matt's comment is that THIS happened on NBC's watch.. (this shot FROM THE NBC BROADCAST.. ) WITH Matt Iseman actually doing commentary.. It was so important that they put it on before the official Japanese broadcast, in prime-time, on American television. Was it because NBC is still trying to convince people that only the Americans were flown to Japan for a solo event and 90 people were cut from the NBC broadcast? We're not that stupid Matt. Quit fudging with your own history.. He's competed for the USA FOUR TIMES in international competition.

Anyway, NBC shilling for another show on their network. Guess they got tired of Mysteries of Laura?

Nope.. just a momentary explosion of graphics, Laura is back. LOL

Okay screw it... I am making a new drinking game (and I don't even drink). It's called Matt Quotes™: "he's been on Stage Two as much times as ANYONE in American Ninja Warrior history".. .. lolwut?

Landed on the top part of the slime and almost fell off...

Clear on the HPA

Squeeeeeeeeeeeks a clear on the Wall

LOL NBC making Miska look like the Terminator.

Clear on Bouncy Bridge™

random crowd shot™

And clear on the first stage.

And that's the slip up on the slime part of the wall.

Proud moment for SMF member Miska Sutela. We know him as SasukeFinland (or FINCLI #1) and have for years. I'm happy the shenanigans going on in trials didn't stop you from getting on to the team. Especially since you are legit from Europe. LOL!

Fluff piece on Miska

Miska doing construction on his course for the cameras.

LOL what his course usually looks like.. under ice and snow and friggin' cold!

And the main reason why he's on the show most likely (thanks TBS). For those of us on SMF, we knew of Miska's epic trip to Japan beating the Shin Sedai (New Generation) in a variety of back yard courses. Looking forward to your next one next month! (Shout out to Jin! LOL)

I'm actually surprised they put him on the First stage as he's known as a Cliffer.. which automatically makes him a 3rd stage specialist.

Much more reserved run on the First stage.

Making the obstacle spin a little.

But survives the landing.

Just hangs on to survive the Jumping Spider

Much slower pace as he already knows he's blown the time.

Unlike how this looks like he did continue trying to go up the wall when the camera cut away. He was not told he timed out at this stage. (similar to Kanno they cut it for brevity purposes)

Shame they didn't put him in the 3rd stage where he's proven to be able to hang with the Japanese. Shame his specialty wasn't taken advantage of. Only proves no one knew each other so it wasn't a cohesive team.

We are back to the racist interpreter making up stuff as he goes along. This is the one interview that I knew they paraphrased a lot and even changed the meaning.

He didn't train for ANW for a year.. he trained his ass off for Sasuke. He redeemed himself for failing ANW in an another international event back in February in the ASEAN Open Cup. That experience made him get even stronger because America's Drew Dreschel beat everyone. That experience changed him and made him the athlete he is today. So no he didn't dedicate a year for AMERICAN Ninja Warrior. He trained hard for Ninja Warrior because of the ASEAN Open Cup and another American showing him up at that event.

Mmm.. roll that beautiful bean footage.. ehem.. this is the 2nd year they steal footage from Sasuke Rising.. you know.. the tournaments that NBC hasn't bought because they renegotiated OUT of their contract to show Sasuke domestically? Yeah.. that footage. And yes.. TBS is quite aware that NBC stole the footage.

NBC trying to hide the footage by doing a portrait on all the shots on the fluff piece including their own to keep uniformity. Giggles. They have no shame.

This was actually training footage for Sasuke that Asa shot. Yeah.. not for ANW.. it was for Sasuke 30. The event that took place before ANW's special was even taped. (Sasuke taped in May and ANW in June).

Go! Go! ASA! ASA! Go! Go! ASA! ASA! Shout out to Perry (legit) from Netherlands! Shame you couldn't be on the team bro! And ASEAN Open Cup Gold Medalist from Team USA Mike Bernardo.

Matt Quotes™: "The Ninja athletes really respect each other. You won't see any trash talking in this competition" Heh... he kinda missed a few already in this broadcast.. including.. his own..

This time he doesn't face plant on the Giant Ring.

Random crowd shot™

Asa taking the obstacle too low and bumps his butt on the slope.

As a result he makes the obstacle spin.

Lucky to have survived that.

Shingo shouting to someone (not sure if Asa)

AAaaaaaaaaaannd..

no.. landed on the slime sideways..

And there was much gnashing of teeth... hmm.. where's Shingo.. yeah.. random crowd shot™

I'm so used to the septic sludge that this shot looks weird to me. LOL

Okay outside of the racist interpreter, his fluff is just about right. He spends 80% of his time on School and 20% of his time on Ninja Warrior (Sasuke to us but you know what they mean and they were specific to not put ANW in that statement).

So yeah that sounds right. He's talked about that before. He doesn't put the training in the forefront of his life. He gets stronger each time but he has his priorities straight.

Yep.. more stolen footage.. this is from Sasuke 29, another tournament NBC has refused to air in the United States so they stole it from the fans instead of paying for the pristine copy that TBS has. God forbid right?

So you get a grainy copy of the first ever clear of the original Crazy Cliffhanger クレイジークリフハンガー instead of seeing this feat on American television back when Comcast actually cared.

NBC has no plans of ever showing the original show again. Shame. There's been some really cool tournaments that people have missed.

And the first of the guys that has no idea why the hell he's here but answered the call from his agent telling him that he'd be paid to do something...

At least he's FROM Italy and Italy just happens to be in Europe to fit the bill. So yeah. Score NBC. /sarcasm

LOL I thought I was calmer when I wrote it. The first time I had like 10 more paragraphs. My frustration is not about the format (though I don't like that either - but that could be attributed to just personal preference - and even the ASEAN had a similar but fundamentally different take - it was against the course, and not each other. This is point blank head to head), my biggest beef was the composition of a pseudo foreign team and the results fixing in part 3 which I haven't even written yet. I admit that's coloring how angry I am in the first few parts, but it's damn near impossible to pick the thing apart knowing that ahead of time.

Stage 1 didn't have any major changes. That comes later. :p I know some were futzed with but I don't have the order of the list for Stage 1. No one that relayed the information was bothered much by the first stage to care what the exact order was. All the major problems were later. I'll deal with that this week.